A Coventry man who admitted his part in a #56,000 theft from a city business has been jailed for nine months.

Coventry Crown Court was told that Ashley John Miles, aged 29, of Sandgate Crescent, Stoke, was relieved when his involvement in a tyre stealing and delivery scam at Exel Logistics in Coventry's Prologis Business Park, came to light.

He pleaded guilty to thefts from June to September last year after another employee told management that an in-house gang was stealing and then selling the company's Bridgestone and Firestone tyres.

Gary Cook, prosecuting, said: "Miles would load lorries overnight with tyres and a driver would deliver the tyres to a pre-arranged destination.

"The defendant would load, firstly, the stolen tyres and push them right to the driver's headboard and then the legal load of tyres would go in.

"The driver would then receive cash having delivered stolen tyres and then distribute the money.

"Miles was getting from #100 to #300 a time, making total receipts of about #2,000."

Lucy Allen, defending, said Miles was a hard worker with no previous convictions and was a man who had no idea of what he had got himself into.

She said: "He was not the mastermind of the operation, he would be impossible of doing so. In fact, as soon as the theft came to light he was relieved.

"He had got himself into a situation where he was totally out of his depth. He had no idea of the trouble he was in."